Fall Shows

Hello:

Time is still flying by. I can't believe it's almost October 1. I am very glad for the fall temps.

Last weekend I participated in a rock show in Oshkosh. Thanks to everyone who stopped by. This was my 3rd year at this show and I always enjoy it (and eating at my favorite restaurant - Kodiak Jacks). In the past, the club that puts on this show has always had speakers giving talks on geology or other rock/fossil related topics. They did not have any speakers this year. I'm sure it gets harder and harder to find people to volunteer their time for this type of thing. In fact, it seems to me that the rock shows in this part of the midwest are all about getting the same small group of vendors together to sell their stuff and less about promoting and teaching about geology and the lapidary arts. Disappointing.

I will be at the Mt. Horeb Fall Fest this coming weekend. The show special will be gemstone and sterling silver bracelets - $16 each (usually are $18) or 2 for $30. I'm hoping it won't be too windy. My display and the wind don't mix well...

There are a couple of things I'd like to mention even though I've written about them before.

First, I do charge sales tax on my items. I have had a few customers lately who seem surprised and offended by this. Believe me, if there was any way I could get around charging sales tax I would. I have to pay these taxes quarterly to the state via an online interface and it is one of my most dreaded tasks. But, JRD is a real business, and the state of WI requires me to charge this tax. Thanks for understanding.

Secondly, I would like to address the pricing of my jewelry. I price my pieces honestly and fairly. I don't price to allow room for negotiation. Now, if you buy in large quantities ($100+ or more) I will offer a discount. But...it will be a very small discount. While JRD is a labor of love - meaning I don't make a living from it - I do have to cover my costs (which are increasing all the time). I can't do that if I offer discounts on small quantities.

I also do not reduce my prices close to or at the end of a show. If a piece doesn't sell at one show, it will sell at the next, or the one after that.

What I am doing is offering "show specials". These will be an item or a particular grouping of items that are offered at a special price for a show. The specials will change at each show. This weekend's "show special" will be bracelets priced as listed above.

In general, pricing is a touchy topic amongst artisan jewelry designers. If you price your stuff at a reasonable price point other artists accuse you of undercutting them. If you price too high, things don't sell. And there are always those lower end sellers that sell non sterling stuff and price it real low - like $2 for a pair of earrings, sigh.

Trying to Catch Up

These past few weeks have been super busy and I've not had a chance to update the blog. I've had a show every weekend for the last 3 weeks, plus I have a 40+ hour a week job, which means I've worked the last 21 days in a row; those days have passed in a blur... When my alarm rang at 4:30 this morning I thought it was a bad dream. It wasn't, it was just time to get up and go to work, sigh.

I enjoyed the show in Wausau this weekend. I grew up there, and while I would not want to live there again, I do enjoy going back for a visit once in a while. I saw some family members I hadn't seen in years and enjoyed some great food (Chang Garden, which now surpasses the Peking as my favorite chinese restaurant).

Thank you to everyone who stopped by to browse/chat/make a purchase (or to take a business card and ask if I was going to the local rock show--HA HA, you're sooo funny).

My husband and I are headed out to the 43rd annual Denver Gem and Mineral Show this week. For those of you who don't know, my husband has a rock shop located in Westgate Mall in Madison. It's a fun side business for him and this will be our 6th year attending the show. We both enjoy handpicking treasures to bring back. You never know what you will find - people come from all over the world to sell their stuff.

In other news, I've purchased several new tools recently. I've been so busy that I've not had a chance to unbox most of them yet. I have many many new designs in the works, and these tools will help me create them. More info to come.

Good Neighbor Fest

We will be at the Good Neighbor Fest next weekend. Hope you can make it!

Also, Bob will be on vacation this week, so he will not be at St. Germaine or Boulder Junction. He will be back the following week.



Totally off topic...this house sold recently:


That's right, it's 108 (formerly 112) Ocean Ave., Amityville, Long Island, NY. The infamous Amityville Horror House. The seller is having a tag sale this weekend, wouldn't it be fun to attend? Minors are not allowed??

Upcoming Shows for week of Aug 16

Monday: St Germaine
Tuesday: Boulder Junction
Wednesday: Eagle River

Loon Days - Aug. 4th

Tomorrow is Loon Days in Mercer. Bob will be there and will have lots of new stuff and he hopes you will come check it out.


I got to spend some time at J.R. Designs Studio North recently. Not much work got done - the trip was mostly for some R & R - but I did get a bunch of my new creations put on cards.

I also looked at the many many buckets of rough stone that Bob has collected over the years. All of it needs to be cut and made into cabs. I need more hours in the day.

It has been very warm

I would really like to thank everyone who came to visit us at the last couple of shows. Both weekends were so hot, I would not have ventured out had I not been signed up to sell stuff.

Mt Horeb is one of my favorite shows. I love the town, the victorian houses and the shops, especially Witchery Stitchery. I snuck out from my booth for a bit to look for a sampler that I want to stitch; they didn't have it, but they did have precious air conditioning, ahhh...

I did a quick tour of the show and didn't find anything to buy, which is a bit unusual. There was the usual amount of jewelry and also many many photographers.

Last weekend was Waunafest. What can I say about that show? It's been hit or miss for the last few years, and this year was a miss. I must say that the show organizer does a HORRIBLE job of spacing the jewelry people--she puts them all together in a row and across from each other, sigh. Few people, slow sales and some cranky crafters led to a looong day.

Our next few shows are all up north - flea markets, Loon Days, Paul Bunyon Fest and Crazy Days. Bob will be at them all. I will be hard at work at my real job and on a quick family vacation to W.V.


The old milk house on my farm, now converted to a garden tool shed

A Productive Day

Well...my last show was kind of slow, but I did get some stuff done:

1. Got through all my junk mail.
2. Read a few chapters of my book.
3. Read the latest Cloth Paper Scissors (love that magazine)
4. Got a lot of stitching done on the current sampler I'm working on.

I wish I'd had more customers (they were strangely lacking from this show), but it was a productive day and I was under a shelter and away from the sun.

Hope to see you all at Mt. Horeb this weekend!

Poynette Historic Home and Garden Tour

Here's the scoop on my next show:

Saturday, July 10th, 9am-4pm
Paquette Park, Poynette

I will be in booth 4, which is under the shelter. Hope to see you there.

We planted corn in our hay field this year. It's growing FAST!


Miss E in the corn, July 6th

July 4, 2010

Thanks to everyone who came to see us this weekend. It was a hot one, but at least there was no rain.
It was our first time at Lodi. It was a nice show in a great setting.

I was disappointed with today's show. I've done this one for a few years and it has always been great; this year they added more booths and most seemed to be jewelry. Some of the vendors selling other things also added jewelry to their wares. It seems like everybody and their brother make jewelry these days, SIGH.

Bob will be at St. Germaine on Monday and Boulder on Tuesday.

I will be in Poynette next Saturday. I don't have all the details on this yet, I will post them as they become available.

The following weekend we will be at Mt. Horeb. We will be in our usual spot, however they seem to keep adding more booths, so not sure how far from the end we will be.

Happy 4th of July!


Bob cooling his toes in the creek at Habermann Park. It was a very hot day.

First show of 2010

My first show of 2010 is this Saturday, May 8th at the Sunnyvale Expo Center in Oshkosh. The show runs from 10 - 3 and I will be in booth 55. This is my first time at this show and I don't know what to expect. It is not juried, so it could be interesting. Hope you can come check it out!

Some recent cabs

These are some cabs that I recently made. I need to make a lot more before I have my technique down to where I feel I'm producing quality cabs. Fortunately, I have lots of rock to practice on. The cab on the far right was made by my daughter. She is fascinated by this process. Look out world, there's another lapidary artist/jewelry designer in the making.

"Practice is the best of all instructors" Publilius Syrus

Silver Prices in 2010

Bob sent me this article at the end of 2009, so it's a little dated, but look at the predictions for silver prices in 2010! Ugly!! Silver is increasing in price much faster than gold. Not good news.

Silver Price Popping into 2010



Precious metals prices were popping off of holiday lows Monday as traders returned to the markets.

Gold had jumped as high as $1124 an ounce by 9:30am in New York and silver soared to $17.59 by 11am as a weaker dollar made the shiny cousins much more attractive.

If silver continues to rally toward the $18 level, we can expect further price increases on industrial demand, says CommodityOnline, as manufacturers “buy on concerns of having to purchase silver at higher prices later.”

Silver is also benefitting from promising Asian manufacturing data and the hope of a strengthening global recovery. The HSBC China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) climbed 0.4 to 56.1 in December, making it the ninth month in a row that the PMI has been above 50.

Silver closed Monday at $17.58 an ounce up 4.21 per cent, nearly double gold which closed up 2.23 per cent to $1120.90 an ounce. Silver prices gained 48 per cent overall for 2009 compared to 24 per cent for gold. Today being a prime example, the white metal is expected to outperform its yellow counterpart in 2010.

While investment demand for silver helped drive prices higher this past year despite flagging global industrial growth, industrial demand for silver will fuel record highs in 2010, say many analysts.

“As precious metals, silver benefits from many of the same market drivers as gold,” said analysts at Castlestone Management. “While not typically a major reserve of central banks, investment demand has been increasing for many of the same reasons as for gold. But as a metal with greater industrial usage, it is more highly leveraged to the improving economy.”

According to Angel Commodities, silver will “witness a bullish phase as new avenues of demand open up amid the existing traditional applications of the metal” and prices will “trade in the range of $14..00 - $24.35″ an ounce.

An example of one “new avenue of demand” comes from the electronics industry and the use of silver in photovoltaic applications for solar energy panels, which has the backing of several government programs that encourage development of renewable energy sources.

CPM Group associate director of research Carlos Sanchez has a bullish outlook for silver as well and expects prices “to, perhaps, top $20 later this year.”

David Wilson, Societe Generale metals analyst, anticipates gold prices helping “to keep silver buoyant” along with “the proliferation of new industrial uses [helping] to tighten the market’s fundamental balance.” Wilson says Societe Generale expects silver to average nearly $22 an ounce in 2010 and $26 an ounce in 2012.

Whether global economic growth does pick up in 2010 or economic conditions around the world worsen, silver investors stand to benefit over the long-term.

Besides the COMEX spot market and purchasing physical silver, there are other options for making great silver plays including exchange-traded funds and silver mining stocks.

New Designs

I have lots of new designs and design ideas for 2010 and beyond. I finished the first semester of a metalsmithing class and will begin the 2nd semester next week. This has opened up lots and lots of new techniques and I have tons of ideas swirling in my head.

I'm slowly but surely practicing these metalsmithing techniques so that I can create items that I feel are fit to sell. Jewelry making acts as a creative outlet for me; my goal is not to churn out piles of jewelry that I can quickly cash in for money. I have a full time job that pays my bills (and a husband with a job), so I don't rely on my jewelry sales for income. Most of the money that I make from my jewelry is spent on the business--new tools,classes,rock and other supplies. I've found that metalsmithing can be done with a minimum of tools, but there are lots of nice to have tools that cost a lot. I have bought some, but my wish list is still long.

I have also almost completely outfitted my lapidary studio. I have a really nice trim saw, groove cutter and a Genie. I still need a slab saw. My husband has a large homemade one, but it's currently not in working order. I have made a few cabs, but none are up to my standards yet, so it'll probably be a while before I'll have bezel set stones for sale.

These are some hand fabricated copper charms that I will be incorporating with some of my pendants:


I also have my maker's mark picked out for my designs. There is a story behind it that I'll talk about in the future.

By the way, I'm not trying to sound superior to those who do design jewelry for a living by saying I don't rely on this business for my income. I admire those who are willing to take such a financial risk. I know a husband/wife team and a young girl who do this for a living and I wouldn't want to be in their shoes. I can tell by their attitudes towards other designers (don't like them, go out of their way to discredit them) that it's a tough lifestyle. Good luck to them.

Anybody can sympathise with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathise with a friend's success. --Oscar Wilde